Kavanaugh delivered the remarks before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday.
Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s opening statement for a scheduled hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Feinstein, members of the committee, thank you for allowing me to make my statement. I wrote it myself yesterday afternoon and evening. No one has seen a draft of it except for one of my former law clerks. This is my statement.
Less than two weeks ago Dr. Ford publicly accused me of committing wrongdoing at an event more than 36 years ago when we were both in high school. I denied the allegation immediately, categorically and unequivocally. All four people allegedly at the event, including Dr. Ford’s long-time friend Ms. Kaiser, have said they recall no such event. Her long-time friend, Ms. Kaiser, said under penalty of felony that she does not know me and does not believe she ever saw me at a party ever. Here is the quote from Ms. Kaiser’s attorney’s letter: “Simply put, Ms. Kaiser does not know Mr. Kavanaugh and she has no recollection of ever being at a party where he was present, with or without Ms. Ford.” Think about that fact.
The day after the allegation appeared, I told this committee that I wanted a hearing as soon as possible to clear my name. I demanded a hearing for the very next day. Unfortunately, it took the committee ten days to get to this hearing. In those ten long days, as was predictable and as I predicted, my family and my name have been totally and permanently destroyed by vicious and false additional accusations. The ten-day delay has been harmful to me and my family, to the Supreme Court and to the country. When this allegation first arose, I welcomed any kind of investigation — Senate, FBI or otherwise. The committee now has conducted a thorough investigation and I’ve cooperated fully. I know that any kind of investigation, senate, FBI, Montgomery County police, whatever, will clear me.
Listen to the people I know. Listen to the people who have known me my whole life. Listen to the people I’ve grown up with and worked with and played with and coached with and dated and taught and gone to games with and had beers with. Listen to the witnesses who allegedly were at this event 36 years ago. Listen to miss Kaiser. She does not know me. I was not at the party described by Dr. Ford. This confirmation process has become a national disgrace. The constitution gives the Senate an important role in the confirmation process. But you have replaced “advice and consent” with “search and destroy.”
Since my nomination in July, there has been a frenzy on the left to come up with something, anything, to block my confirmation. Shortly after I was nominated the Democratic Senate Leader said he would “oppose me with everything he’s got.” A Democratic senator on this committee publicly referred to me as “evil.” Evil. Think about that word. And said that those who supported me were “complicit in evil.” Another Democratic senator on this committee said, “Judge Kavanaugh is your worst nightmare.” A former head of the Democratic National Committee said “Judge Kavanaugh will threaten the lives of millions of Americans for decades to come.” I understand the passions of the moment, but I would say to those senators: your words have meaning. Millions of Americans listened carefully to you. Given comments like those, is it any surprise that people have been willing to do anything to make any physical threat against my family, to send any violent e-mail to my wife, to make any kind of allegation against me and against my friends, to blow me up and take me down. You sowed the wind for decades to come. I fear that the whole country will reap the whirlwind. The behavior of several of the Democratic members this committee at my hearing a few weeks ago was an embarrassment. At least it was just a good old-fashioned attempt at [inintelligible]. Those efforts didn’t work. When I did at least okay enough at the hearings that it looked like I might actually get confirmed, a new tactic was needed.
Some of you were lying in wait and had it ready. This first allegation was held in secret for weeks by a Democratic member of this committee and by staff. It would be needed only if you couldn’t take me out on the merits. When it was needed, this allegation was unleashed and publicly deployed over Dr. Ford’s wishes. And then, and then, as no doubt was expected, if not planned, came a long series of false, last-minute smears designed to scare me and drive me out of the process before any hearing occurred. Crazy stuff: gangs, illegitimate children, fights on boats in Rhode Island. All nonsense reported breathlessly and often uncritically by the media. This has destroyed my family and my good name, a good name built up through decades of very hard work and public service at the highest levels of the American government. This whole two-week effort has been a calculated and orchestrated political hit fueled with apparent pent-up anger about President Trump and the 2016 election, fear that has been unfairly stoked about my judicial record, revenge on behalf of the Clintons and millions of dollars in money from outside left-wing opposition groups. This is a circus. The consequences will extend long past my nomination. The consequences will be with us for decades. This grotesque and coordinated character assassination will dissuade competent and good people of all political persuasions from serving our country.
And as we all know, in the United States political system of the early 2000s, what goes around comes around. I am an optimistic guy. I always trying to on the sunrise side of the mountain, to be optimistic about the day that is coming. But today I have to say that I fear for the future. Last time I was here, I told this committee that a federal judge must be independent, not swayed by public or political pressure. I said I was such a judge and I am. I will not be intimidated into withdrawing from this process. You’ve tried hard. You’ve given it your all. No one can question your effort, but your coordinated and well-funded effort to destroy my good name and destroy my family will not drive me out. The vile threats of violence against my family will not drive me out. You may defeat me in the final vote, but you’ll never get me to quit. Never. I’m here today to tell the truth. I’ve never sexual assaulted anyone, not in high school, not in college, not ever. Sexual assault is horrific. One of my closest friends to this day is a woman who was sexually abused and who in the 1990s, when we were in our 30s, confided in me about the abuse and sought my advice. I was one of the only people she consulted. Allegations of sexual assault must always be taken seriously, always. Those who make allegations always deserve to be heard. At the same time, the person who is the subject of the allegations also deserves to be heard. Due process is a foundation of the American rule of law. Due process means listening to both sides.
As I told you at my hearing three weeks ago, I’m the only child of Martha and Ed Kavanaugh. They are here today. When I was 10, my mom went to law school and as a lawyer she worked hard and overcame barriers, including the workplace sexual harassment that so many women faced at the time and still face today. She became a trailblazer, one of Maryland’s earliest women prosecutors and trial judges. She and my dad taught me the importance equality and respect for all people and she inspired me to be a lawyer and a judge. Last time I was here I told you that when my mom was a prosecutor and I was in high school, she used to practice her closing arguments at the dining room table on my dad and me.
As I told you, her trademark line was “Use your common sense, what rings true, what rings false?” Her trademark line is a good reminder as we sit here today, some 36 years after the alleged event occurred, when there is no corroboration and indeed it is refuted by the people allegedly there. After I have been in the public arena for 26 years without even a hint, a whiff of an allegation like this and when my nomination to the supreme court was just about to be voted on at a time when I’m called evil by a Democratic member of this committee, while Democratic opponents of my nomination say people will die if I am confirmed. This onslaught of last-minute allegations does not ring true. I’m not questioning that Dr. Ford may have been sexual assaulted by some person in some place at some time, but I have never done this to her or to anyone. That’s not who I am. It is not who I was. I am innocent of this charge. I intend no ill will to Dr. Ford and her family. The other night Ashley and my daughter Liza said their prayers and little Liza all of ten years old said to Ashley, we should pray for the woman. That’s a lot of wisdom from a 10-year-old. We mean no ill will.
First let’s start with my career. For the last 26 years, since 1992, I’ve served in many high-profile and sensitive government positions, for which the FBI has investigated my background six separate times. Six separate FBI background investigations over 26 years. All of them after the event alleged here. I have been in the public arena and under extreme public scrutiny for decades. In 1992, I worked for the Office of Solicitor General in the Department of Justice. In 1993 I clerked on the Supreme Court for Justice Anthony Kennedy. I spent four years at the independent counsel’s office during the 1990s. That office was the subject of enormous scrutiny from the media and the public. During 1998, the year of the impeachment of president Clinton, our office generally, and I personally were in the middle of an intense national media and political spotlight. I and other leading members of Ken Starr’s office were opposition research from head to toe from birth through the present day. Recall the people who were exposed that year of 1997 as having engaged in some sexual wrongdoings or indiscretion in the past. One person on the left even paid a million dollars for people to report evidence of sexual wrongdoing and it worked. Exposed some prominent people. Nothing about me.
From 2001 to 2006 I worked for president George W. Bush in the White House. As staff secretary I was by president Bush’s side for three years and was entrusted with the nation’s most sensitive secrets. I traveled on Air Force One all over the country and the world with President Bush. I went everywhere with him, from Texas to Pakistan, from Alaska to Australia, from Buckingham Palace to the Vatican. Three years in the West Wing, five and a half years in the White House. I was then nominated to be a judge on the D. C. Circuit. I was thoroughly vetted by the white house, the FBI, the American Bar Association and this committee. I sat before this committee for two thorough confirmation hearings in 2004 and 2006. For the past 12 years leading up to my nomination for this job, I’ve served in a very public arena as a federal judge on what is often referred to as the second most important court in the country. I’ve handled some of the most sensitive cases affecting the lives and liberties of the American people. I have been a good judge.
For this nomination, another FBI background investigation, another American Bar Association investigation, 31 hours of hearings, 65 senator meetings, 1,200 written questions, more than all previous Supreme Court nominees combined. Throughout that entire time, throughout my 53 years and seven months on this Earth, until last week no one ever accused me of any kind of sexual misconduct. No one, ever. A lifetime, a lifetime of public service and a lifetime of high-profile public service, at the highest levels of American government and never a hint of anything of this kind. And that’s because nothing of this kind ever happened.
Second, let’s turn to specifics. I categorically and unequivocally deny the allegation against me by Dr. Ford. I never had any sexual or physical encounter of any kind with Dr. Ford. I never attended a gathering like the one Dr. Ford describes in her allegations. I never sexual assaulted Dr. Ford or anyone. Again, I am not questioning that Dr. Ford may have been sexual assaulted by some person in some place at some time, but I have never done that to her or to anyone. Dr. Ford’s allegation stems from a party that she alleges occurred during the summer of 1982,36 years ago. I was 17 years old between my junior and senior years of high school at Georgetown Prep, a rigorous, all-boys Catholic Jesuit High School in Rockville, Md. When my friends and I spent time together at parties on weekends, it was usually with friends from nearby Catholic all-girl high schools, Stone Ridge, Holy Child, Visitation, Immaculata, Holy Cross. Dr. Ford did not attend one of those schools. She attended an independent private school named Holton-Arms and she was a year behind me. She and I did not travel in the same social circles. It is possible that we met at some point at some events, although I do not recall that. To repeat, all of the people identified by Dr. Ford as being present at the party have said they do not remember any such party ever happening. Importantly her friend, Ms. Kaiser, has not only denied knowledge of the party, Ms. Kaiser said under penalty of felony she does not know me, does not recall ever being at a party with me ever. And my two male friends who were allegedly there, who knew me well, have told this committee under penalty of felony that they do not recall any such party and that I never did or would do anything like this.
